This is the third renewal of a NHLBI-supported Minority Institutional Research Training Program in cardiovascular biology at Meharry Medical College (MMC) that will focus in the considerable strengths and diversity of multidepartmental research in cardiovascular biology at MMC and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUMC) into a unique and coherent framework for specialized training. The proposed program will support five pre-doctoral trainees per year and will involve 28 faculty members at MMC and VUMC. Three departments including Cardiovascular Biology at MMC and six departments at VUMC, participate in the program. The research training will focus in cardiovascular biology using cutting edge science and approaches to elucidate mechanisms causing cardiovascular as well as hematologic diseases. The Program Director, Dr. Fernando Villalta, will provide overall direction for the program and will be assisted by the co-Program Director Dr. Z. Guo, the Senior Oversight Committee (with MMC and VUMC faculty), the Faculty Advisory Committee (with MMC and VUMC faculty), the Student Advisory Committee and the External Advisory Committee. Program students will meet Ph.D. requirements of the MMC Graduate Program and requirements of this training program. Each trainee will have a MMC advisor and a VUMC mentor from the core faculty who have common research interests in cardiovascular biology and will collaborate in the development of the student research plan together with the trainee. Each trainee will take a didactic course at VUMC and participate in research opportunities at the VUMC mentor's lab. All trainees and faculty in the program will participate in a seminar series that include presentations by program participants and visiting scientists. The trainees will also participate in work-inprogress seminars and journal clubs in vascular biology. The goals of the program are to attract talented African- American and other minority students in their developmental stages, increase their awareness of cardiovascular diseases, and to encourage them to pursue career opportunities in research related to the mission of the NHLBI. These goals will be enhanced by the increasing number of collaborative research and training at MMC and VUMC resulting from the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. (End of Abstract)